(26 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Idlib, Syria – 26 June 2024
1. Various of Idlib city centre
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Malek Khatab, displaced from Daraa:
“It’s a good decision. It counts as a political win for the Syrian revolution but the problem is in its implementation. Most of the decisions being made by international courts or in the courts of the countries included in the Syrian issue. Firstly, the decisions are stalled in implementation and they are delayed for long periods. Secondly, they are not taken seriously by the Syrian regime and there are countries that pressure the cancellation of these decisions and even reduce the sentences.”
3. Various of Idlib city centre
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmed Hatem, displaced from Daraya outskirts of Damascus
"This decision came late but we hope that the concerned parties will implement and stop him from travelling. After 12 years of war and destruction, all he did was destroy and displace. God give us revenge and God gives us good."
5. Street with clothes shops
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sawsan Saeed, Idlib Resident:
"We hope as Syrians, I hope as someone living in the liberated north, that they really implement these decisions and these judgements. And that it is a means to get to him, even if he is in Damascus, he has to be tried for the crimes he caused."
7. Idlib city centre
STORYLINE:
The Paris Appeals Court ruled Wednesday that an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar Assad, issued by France, for alleged complicity in war crimes during Syria’s civil war, is valid and remains in place.
In rebel-held northern Syria, where thousands of displaced people live, many are cautiously optimistic.
Malek Khatab is displaced from Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian protests that were the catalyst of the civil war. He says “It’s a good decision. It counts as a political win for the Syrian revolution, but the problem is in its implementation."
The issue, he believes, is "Firstly, the decisions are stalled in implementation and they are delayed for long periods. Secondly, they are not taken seriously by the Syrian regime and some countries pressure the cancellation of these decisions and even reduce sentences.”
In May, French anti-terrorism prosecutors asked the Paris appeals court to rule on lifting the arrest warrant for Assad, saying he has absolute immunity as a serving head of state.
French judicial authorities issued international arrest warrants last November for Assad; his brother Maher Assad, the commander of the Fourth Armored Division; and two Syrian generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, for alleged complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity that included a 2013 chemical attack on the opposition-held Damascus suburbs.
President Assad is unlikely to face trial in France, international warrants for a serving world leader are very rare and send a strong message about Assad’s leadership, at a time when some countries have welcomed him back into the diplomatic fold.
More than 1,000 people were killed and thousands were injured in the August 2013 attacks on Douma and Eastern Ghouta.
The investigation into the attacks has been conducted under universal jurisdiction in France, by a special unit of the Paris Judicial Court. It was opened in 2021 in response to a criminal complaint by the survivors filed by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.
AP Video shot by: Omar Albam
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